Two rural U.S. communities – one in the east and a second in the west – have reportedly been targeted for so-called "interim" nuclear waste dumps but the nuclear industry refuses to identify them. The parking lot dumps would occupy 1,000 acres and house high-level radioactive waste from the country’s nuclear power plants until – and if – the controversial Yucca Mountain high-level radioactive waste dump opens. In an apparently secret deal, the Nuclear Energy Institute (NEI) has led the search for the sites, examining seven and narrowing the choice to two.

“NEI and the two mayors should tell their communities and the neighboring towns they are being targeted for radioactive waste traffic,” said Paul Gunter, director of reactor oversight at Beyond Nuclear. "Absent a demonstrated and approved long-term storage plan for nuclear waste, any new dump is potentially a permanent site," Gunter said.

“This is not a decision that should be made behind closed doors but in the full light of day,” Gunter added. “The residents of these communities, their neighbors downwind and particularly the many more communities along the transportation routes have a right to say whether they want to take the increased health and security risks of trafficking and housing the country’s nuclear detritus, even temporarily.”

The NEI has divulged only that the interested communities already have nuclear installations of some kind and that they are in rural areas.